EVANSTON, Ill. -- The Big Ten Conference announced Thursday the schedules for the first two seasons of its new nine-game conference football season format, the 2016 and 2017 campaigns.

Beginning in 2014, the league will welcome conference newcomers Rutgers and Maryland into the fold and move from its current divisional breakdown to a geographically based East-West divisional format. With the inception of the nine-game schedule in 2016, each team will face the other six schools in their respective divisions as well as three crossover opponents. It is the first time since the 1983 and 1984 seasons that Big Ten teams will play a nine-game conference schedule.

In 2016, Northwestern will step out of its home in the West Division to face East Division foes Michigan State (Oct. 15) and Ohio State (Oct. 29) on the road and Indiana (Oct. 22) at home. NU's visit to the Horseshoe in Columbus will mark the Wildcats' first road test at Ohio State since the 2007 campaign.

The 2016 conference slate also features marquee home dates with Nebraska, Wisconsin and rival Illinois.

The following year, Northwestern kicks off the conference schedule on Oct. 1 at Iowa and hosts crossover foe Penn State the following week before heading to the east coast for its first-ever meeting on the gridiron with the University of Maryland (Oct. 14). In addition to the Nittany Lions and Terps, Michigan State again appears on the Wildcats' schedule to round out NU's out-of-division schedule.

The Big Ten Championship game will be played Saturday, Dec. 3 in 2016 and Saturday, Dec. 2 in 2017.

Earlier this spring, Northwestern and the Big Ten announced conference schedules for the final two years of the eight-game conference format, 2014 and 2015. See below for NU's Big Ten opponents and game dates for the four seasons from 2014-17: